Today is Friday, March 20, the 79th day of 2009. There are 286 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History

On March 20, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte returned to Paris after escaping his exile on Elba, beginning his “Hundred Days” rule.

On this date

In 1413, England’s King Henry IV died; he was succeeded by Henry V.

In 1727, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.

In 1828, poet-dramatist Henrik Ibsen was born in Skien, Norway.

In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s influential novel about slavery, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” was first published in book form after being serialized.

In 1899, Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, N.Y., became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair as she was put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her stepdaughter.

In 1956, union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.

In 1969, John Lennon married Yoko Ono in Gibraltar.

In 1977, voters in Paris chose former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to be the French capital’s first mayor in more than a century.

In 1985, Libby Riddles, of Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.

In 1995, in Tokyo, 12 people were killed, more than 5,500 others sickened when packages containing the poisonous gas sarin were leaked on five separate subway trains by Aum Shinrikyo cult members.

Ten years ago

Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first aviators to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop. The Yugoslav army, taking advantage of the departure of international monitors from Kosovo, launched a furious offensive against outgunned ethnic Albanian rebels.

Five years ago

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide rallied against the U.S.-led war in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the conflict. The U.S. military charged six soldiers with abusing inmates at Abu Ghraib prison. The Rev. Karen Dammann, a lesbian Methodist pastor, was acquitted of violating church doctrine in a trial held in Bothell, Wash. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian narrowly won re-election. Former Dutch Queen Juliana died at age 94.

One year ago

In a setback for Democrat Hillary Clinton, a drive for a second Michigan presidential primary collapsed as the state Senate adjourned without taking up a measure calling for a do-over contest. Mao Asada of Japan won the women’s title at the World Figure Skating Championships in Goteborg, Sweden.

Today’s Birthdays

Producer-director-comedian Carl Reiner is 87. Actor Hal Linden is 78. Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is 70. Country singer Don Edwards is 70. TV producer Paul Junger Witt is 66. Country singer-musician Ranger Doug (Riders in the Sky) is 63. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby Orr is 61. Blues singer Marva Wright is 61. Blues singer-musician Marcia Ball is 60. Actor William Hurt is 59. Rock musician Carl Palmer (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) is 59. Rock musician Jimmie Vaughan is 58. Country musician Jimmy Seales (Shenandoah) is 55. Actress Amy Aquino is 52. Movie director Spike Lee is 52. Actress Theresa Russell is 52. Actress Vanessa Bell Calloway is 52. Actress Holly Hunter is 51. Rock musician Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats) is 48. Actress-model-lifestyle designer Kathy Ireland is 46. Actor David Thewlis is 46. Rock musician Adrian Oxaal (James) is 44. Actress Liza Snyder is 41. Actor Michael Rapaport is 39. Actor Alexander Chaplin is 38. Rock singer Chester Bennington (Linkin Park) is 33. Actor Michael Genadry is 31. Actress Bianca Lawson is 30. Rock musician Nick Wheeler (The All-American Rejects) is 27.

Thought for Today

“I am I plus my circumstances.”

— Jose Ortega y Gasset,

Spanish philosopher (1883-1955)